Bernie Sanders is gaining ground on Hillary Clinton in the Democrat presidential primary by using a tried and true political strategy; tell a BIGGER LIE than your opponent. Bernie Sanders is promising to increase Social Security payments, increase Social Security cost of living adjustments, and increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour. All of these promises sound really good to a lot of voters, however all of these promises are a PIPE DREAM! We cannot afford our current social benefit promises and the U.S. Government is using corrupt and fraudulent accounting to pretend like we can even come close to affording these current promises.

The U.S. Government now has total Public Liabilities of $97.5 Trillion, our US Unfunded Liabilities (GAAP) as posted on www.usdebtclock.org. The U.S. Government has National Debt of $18.4 Trillion and Unfunded Future Liabilities of another $79.1 Trillion. The U.S. Government is using corrupt and fraudulent accounting to conceal just how much debt the U.S. Government is accumulating by using Cash Accounting vs. the proper GAAP Accounting. Social Security is flat broke! Medicare Part A is unaffordable! Medicaid is unaffordable! Bush's Medicare Part D is clearly unaffordable! Obama's Obamacare is clearly unaffordable! Sanders' Social Security expansion is asinine!

When I say that these social benefit programs are unaffordable, I mean that they are unaffordable at the currently promised levels. I think all of these programs are valid and desirable, they just need to be offered at a level that is affordable by the U.S. taxpayer and they have to be funded with a financing mechanism that makes them sustainable. Using the proper accounting system is absolutely essential to meeting that objective. This means using GAAP (accrual) Accounting and balancing the GAAP basis budget.

The future U.S. taxpayer now owes $97.5 Trillion and is accumulating $5.45 Trillion (our GAAP Deficit for FY2015) more liabilities this fiscal year and yet Bernie Sanders is promising to increase Social Security payments! This is buying him votes but it is outrageously irresponsible. But no one in a position of power or responsibility is prepared to step up and admit to this massive U.S. Government fraud that Bernie Sanders is promising to expand.

The U.S. Government has made financial commitments of $97.5 Trillion that it has not funded and now Bernie Sanders is proposing that we make even more promises. This is insane!

Until the U.S. Government adopts the proper accounting system, GAAP Accounting, and balances the GAAP basis budget, we will continue to have politicians that will attempt to get elected by telling the next BIGGER LIE. The U.S. Government tells the U.S. citizenry that they are adhering to a "pay as you go Fiscal Policy" when in fact they are accumulating massive, and I do mean massive, Public Liabilities.

Our current Fiscal Policy is a Ponzi scheme that is appearing to make the upper class really rich by undertaxing them by $97.5 Trillion and now Bernie Sanders wants to help the lower class "catch up" somewhat to this counterfeit wealth of the upper class by increasing the minimum wage. You cannot compensate for one lie by telling another lie. We cannot possibly solve our fiscal problem and wage inequity by artificially setting an unrealistic minimum wage. Wages have to be set by market conditions.

Businesses can only afford to pay wages that are consistent with their own business model. In our current Ponzi economy, many businesses today have a viable business model solely because the U.S. Government is passing out counterfeit money to everyone by overpaying social benefits, overpaying government workers and government businesses, and undertaxing everybody. The U.S. Government is passing out this counterfeit money at the rate of our GAAP basis Deficit Spending which is $5.45 Trillion a year in FY2015.

When USAPonzi implodes this passing out of counterfeit money will come to an abrupt end and many business models will be instantly invalidated. Increasing the minimum wage does not make sense until the U.S. Government starts telling the financial truth. My prediction is that the minimum wage will have to lowered when the U.S. Government starts telling the financial truth.

We in the United States are living in a fantasy economy created by a corrupt and fraudulent U.S. Government. Until the U.S. Government starts telling the financial truth we will have these dramatic financial distortions. We are living in a Ponzi Economy that is making the upper class appear to be really rich by undertaxing them, is dramatically overpaying the ruling class, is paying much more in social benefits than we can afford, and in the long run is cheating the common man by not funding the social benefit promises (see Cooking the Books!).

I am convinced that USAPonzi was a deliberate fraud that LBJ got approved with the Unified Budget that has gotten us into this currently untenable situation but I would bet that Bernie Sanders and his economic team are making these campaign promises out of financial ignorance. At least I hope so, because if they know the financial implications of their proposals then they are just trying to win the presidential primary by proposing to expand the current massive fraud of USAPonzi. In this instance I think ignorance is preferable to fraudulence.

The U.S. citizenry must demand that the U.S. Government adopt GAAP Accountingand commit to a balanced GAAP basis budget in order to establish an equitable and sustainable fiscal policyfor the Government of the United States of America.